An important contribution to the electric lexicon - or at least that's Prof Scott Fahman's take on the smiley.

The proffesor says he was the first person to use the smiley face in a compter message, twenty-five years ago today. He posted the keystokes - colon, hyphen & parenthesis - on a bulletin board Sep 19th, 1982.

It spread from his Pittburgh campus to other universities, then around the world as the internet caught on. Variations, such as the 'wink' - using a semicolon - came later.

There is no hard evidence nobody invented it before he did, so he may be full of shit.

A visual guide to emoticons. They've come a long way since.

:-) Smiling

:-( Sad

;-) Wink

:'-( Cry

:-D Laugh

<:-l Dunce

:-X My lips are sealed

(:l Egghead

\_/ Empty glass

b(-_-)d Thumbs up

Cali Kid